A Hawk in the Woods

by Carrie Laben

Overview

When newscaster Abby Waite is diagnosed with a potentially terminal illness, she decides to do the logical thing... break her twin sister Martha out of prison and hit the road. Their destination is the Waite family cabin in Minnesota where Abby plans a family reunion of sorts. But when you come from a family where your grandfather frequently took control of your body during your youth, where your mother tried to inhabit your mind and suck your youthful energies out of you, and where so many dark secrets--and bodies, even--are buried, such a family meeting promises to be nothing short of complicated...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781939905468
Publisher:	Word Horde
Publication date:	03/26/2019
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.61(d)

About the Author

Carrie Laben grew up in western New York. She earned her BS at Cornell and later her MFA at the University of Montana. She now lives in Queens, where she spends a lot of time staring at birds. Her work has appeared in such venues as Birding, Clarkesworld, The Dark, Indiana Review, Okey-Panky, and Outlook Springs. In 2017 she won the Shirley Jackson Award in Short Fiction for her story "Postcards from Natalie" and Duke University's Documentary Essay Prize for the essay "The Wrong Place". In 2015 she was selected for the Anne LaBastille Memorial Writer's Residency, in 2018 she was a MacDowell Fellow, and in 2019 she was a resident at Brush Creek. This is her first novel. She is currently at work on a book of essays about urban environmentalism.

Editorial Reviews

★ 03/04/2019

Laben’s debut novel is a gruesome, wry horror story that follows Abby Waite, who has an ability to draw energy from and control others. She and her twin sister, Martha, learned to hone their powers through years of abusive tutelage at the hands of their grandfather and mother. When Abby finds out she’s dying, she decides to break her sister out of prison and return to the family cabin, hoping to perform a mysterious ritual and achieve something her grandfather never could. Just like Abby, there are moments where Laben’s voice can push a little too hard, but it’s impossible not to get caught up in the story as it jumps back and forth in time while maintaining a foreboding, unearthly mood. Each new twist captivates and feels like a sickening revelation rather than a cheap scare. At once sly and grim, soberingly real and darkly fantastical, the story of the Waite sisters will haunt readers like an eerie old folk song. Agent: Stephen Barbara, InkWell Mgmt. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"At once sly and grim, soberingly real and darkly fantastical, the story of the Waite sisters will haunt readers like an eerie old folk song." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"In this uncanny world, the darkest moments don't come from the supernatural horror but from the realization that the Waites' underlying dysfunction is a near and dear part of our own." --Foreword Reviews (starred review)

"A Hawk in the Woods is wonderfully dark and spellbinding, mixing the road novel, family drama, time travel, cosmic horror, and maybe even a little Heathers. Carrie Laben is an original, compelling new voice. Consider me a fan for life." --Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts

"Ride or die sisterhood, conjured from the bones of H. P. Lovecraft." --Molly Tanzer, author of Vermilion and Creatures of Will & Temper

"Carrie Laben is a monster--they don't even make writers like this anymore. You will be reading her name for decades to come." --Cara Hoffman, Author of Running and So Much Pretty

From the Publisher